Alright, Luke chapter 8, brethren. I want to focus on this one exhortation
right here in verse 18. Take heed, therefore, how ye
hear. Do you take heed, therefore,
how ye hear? Now this is God. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ speaking. And He gives the same exhortation
in Matthew and in Mark. That means this is very, very
important. Do you take heed how you hear
the Word of God? come to preach a message, usually,
on average, I've spent at least 24 hours on the message. Sometimes longer than that. Do we take that long to prepare
to hear the message? I don't just mean prior to coming,
although I do mean that, but then after the message is preached.
to search it, to read it, to listen again, to seek God's grace
and God's understanding, God's teaching in the heart. Take heed
how you hear. Here are four reasons to heed
how we hear. Four reasons. First, Christ had
just... Notice there that word, therefore.
See, it says, take heed therefore how you hear. Christ had just
given the parable of the sower. And in the parable of the sower,
one out of the four hearers heard and was saved. One out of four. Just one. Just one. Take heed therefore how you hear. And then secondly, the Lord said
that He gives us grace and He gives us light so that we might
teach others what He's taught us through the gospel. He said
there in verse 16, No man, when he's lighted a candle, covereth
it with a vessel, or put it under the bed, but setteth it on a
candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. For
nothing secret that shall not be made manifest, neither anything
here that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed, therefore,
how you hear. He's sending forth his disciples
and he's sending us forth to preach the word. And he says,
so take heed, therefore, how you hear. And then thirdly, he
gives more grace to know him more, to grow in grace, to walk
after Him, to serve Him, He gives us more grace, and He does it
through this Word. And by the same token, those
that appear to have grace, but really have no heart for Christ,
He takes from them, even the Word that they have and the privileges
that they have. That's a reason for us to heed
the Gospel. That's the reason for us to heed
the gospel. He said there in verse 18, For, that means because,
whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever hath
not, from him shall be taken, even that which he seems to have.
And then lastly, as we heed the word, and we sit at Christ's
feet, and we hear the gospel preached, And our hearts are
set on knowing Him more, and we want to seek Him more, and
we're determined I'm not going to let anything interfere with
seeking His face. More and more I want to know
Him. Not just in this hour, but all in our life. We're at His
feet wanting to hear what He has to say. You know what He
says about folks who do that? He said, these are my real brethren.
They've heard me say this. They've heard me say, take heed
how you hear. And they've done it. And he says
there at the end of verse 21, my mother and my brethren are
these which hear the word of God and do it. And do it. So our subject is heed how we
hear. Now here's the first reason.
Very few have grace to hear. This is a great privilege. A
great privilege. Look now. Look here in this parable
of the sower. One and four heard. Let's see
how these others heard. Look here in verse 4. When much
people were gathered together, they all came together. There
they are together. It says, and were come to him.
They came to him out of every city. They gathered there to
hear. He's the preacher. And he spake by parable. And
he said, a sower went forth and went out to sow his seed. It's
just the picture. You know the farmer sowing the
seed in the garden. Now the chief sower is Christ.
That's who's sowing the seed here in this text. And Christ
now from His throne in glory uses His faithful messengers,
a preacher just like me standing here tonight preaching to you.
Try to get this in your heart and understanding it's not a
man standing here preaching to you. If you're going to hear
it, if it comes in truth, if the Lord's blessing it, if the
Spirit of God's meeting with us, it's Christ preaching. It's
Christ preaching. We ought to try to hear that,
understand that, get the vessel out of the way and hear Christ
speaking. It's Christ speaking. And the
seed that's sown is the truth. It's the Word of God. Look there
in verse 11. He says, Now the parable is this,
the seed is the word of God. It's the truth of the gospel.
We preach the truth of the scriptures. We don't preach our word, we
preach God's word. And we declare that Adam was
a representative man, representing all men in this world, and that
when he sinned in the garden, he broke God's law, he broke
the covenant of works. And he died, and he fell, and
he fell under a curse. And everybody he represented,
all men, fell under that curse. And being born of him, we don't
have a will to seek God, we don't have an understanding of God,
we don't have a knowledge of God, and we can't make ourselves
have it. But God, before the world was
made in eternity, He chose a people. And he elected a people and gave
them to Christ. And Christ is the last Adam.
He represented his people. And Christ came forth and he
was made flesh like his brethren in this earth. And in his flesh
he laid down his life for his people. And he was made a curse
for us, for his people only. And by that he redeemed his people
from the curse of the law. and we preach that the Holy Spirit
of God, God the Holy Spirit comes and He regenerates us because
we're dead. He comes to each one of those.
We saw Sunday that light going forth like the sun, the Gospels,
the light going forth. And we're seeking God's lost
sheep. That's who we're seeking. And
Christ is going to come and He's going to quicken through the
Holy Spirit, He's going to quicken His people, regenerate them,
and grant them faith and repentance. and bring them to cast their
care on Christ. And it's through this Word, it's
through... Now this is what's so vitally
important. It's through the preaching of
the Gospel that He's going to do this. Through the sowing of
the Word that He's going to do this work in His people. Look
over there with me at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 22, he's speaking to believers
here. And he said, let's begin in verse
21. He says, By Him we do believe
in God, by Christ, that raised Him up from the dead and gave
Him the glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God, seeing
you've purified your souls in obeying the truth. The truth,
the Word of God, through the Spirit. unto unfeigned, unhypocritical
love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently. A good heart, an honest heart,
a sincere heart, a heart made new by grace. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word
of God. By the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For, why do I have to be born
again? Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man
as the flower of grass. Here's what that means. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the Word, that
Word whereby we're born again, the Word of the Lord endures
forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. Now knowing that, knowing that
God's going to... He births His children through
this Word preached. And it's by this Word that we
have eternal life and shall endure forever even as the Word by which
we've been born. What should we do then? Let's
go to the next verse. Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and all hypocrisy, and envy, and all evil speaking,
as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that
you may grow thereby, if so be you've tasted that the Lord is
gracious. Even if you've been in the faith
a long time, still desire the Word like you're a newborn baby.
And like that's above everything else. This is that first love
that he said, don't ever lose this. As newborn babies desire
the sincere milk of the word. Just like a newborn. Of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth. So this gospel you
see, it's vitally important. And you know what I've seen?
I've seen this since about 1985 when I started paying attention. I've seen young people sit with
their parents under the sound of the gospel. I've seen older
people sit with their children under the sound of the gospel.
Children get to be about 18, 19, 20 years old, they move out
of the house from mom and dad, and they stop coming to hear
the gospel preached. I've seen grown folks, got their
children raised, had them sitting under the sound of the gospel,
got their children raised, got them out of the house, and they
quit coming to hear the gospel. Don't ever take for granted the
fact that we have the gospel preached in truth. It's a rare
thing. That's a rare thing. Do you know
what a privilege God's given us to have the gospel preached
to us in truth? That's a rare thing, brethren.
I mean, it's rare. And don't ever forsake hearing
the preaching of the gospel. I'm talking to believer and unbeliever
alike. Don't ever forsake it, because
if God saves you, He will save you by this means of the preaching
of the gospel. That goes for unbeliever and
believer alike. If He's going to quicken you
and give you life, He's going to do it through the Word. And
if He's going to save you from that hour to the last hour, He's
going to do it through the Word. The Scripture says, after that
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. He
showed what man's wisdom would do. The man by his wisdom didn't
know God. And God said, this is how I determine
we're going to do it from here on out. We're going to do it
by preaching. Because it pleases God. That's
why. That's why. So come consistently. You know, I wanted to preach
this message Sunday, and you know why the thought crossed
my mind to preach it Sunday? There'll be more in attendance.
Isn't that sad? I know some can't come. Some
live too far off to come on Thursday night. And most everybody is
consistent. They come. But I just thought
about our young people, you know? But the Word just kept, I had
to preach it tonight. But come consistently. And when
you come, come in this place and open your Bible, and turn
in the scriptures and listen attentively, listen believingly,
listen expectantly, listen in hopes that God will give you
faith to believe and life to believe. Do that. I'm serious. Do that. And remember,
one out of four of these people heard. One out of four. Alright,
first of all, now here's the wayside hearer. How did they
hear? Verse 5. A sower went out to sow his seed,
and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden
down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. Verse 12, he tells
us what that means. Those by the wayside are they
that hear, and then cometh the devil. and taketh away the word
out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."
Wayside hearers are the most common kind of hearers there
are. You know what a wayside is? A
wayside is a by-path. It's a path, you know, over to
the side or in a certain way where a lot of people pass through
it. And so many people go through it and there's so many tracks
that's gone through that they've just pressed the ground down
so it's just so hard. It's almost like concrete. And
that's how he describes the heart of the wayside hearer. That's
what he's like. The word comes and it's trodden
down. It's trodden underfoot. It's
trodden underfoot. Now, you think about this, sinner.
When you sit here and you listen and you hear the word, are you
a wayside hearer? Is this how you hear? Now listen,
a wayside hearer is somebody who, their mind is going down
every kind of path as they're sitting there listening. They're
thinking of all other kind of things and they're off over here
somewhere. Listen, I'm telling you something,
God's going to get you. God's going to describe you right
here. In one of these four hearers, God's going to describe everybody
in this room. Somebody's going to fit into one of these categories.
Everybody here is going to fit into one of these categories.
A wayside hearer is a person who, there's so many people that
he wants to be pleased with and wants to accept him, that when
he's hearing this gospel, he has his mind on fitting in with
those people. And thinks, if I give my attention
to this word, and if God were to do something for me, and I
were to really try to seek Christ and go after Christ, I'm gonna
offend my friends. I'm not gonna fit in with my
friends. I'm going to tell you something. That's a broad way
you're in. You're in a broad way and there's a lot of people
going that way side. And they're trodden down and
they're trodden underfoot the Word of God. Don't be duped by
Satan. Don't be duped by this world.
Don't go with the flow. Don't be a man pleaser. Don't
be somebody that you're afraid of man. You're afraid of man. Why do folks go out and do everything
the world does? Why do they dress like the world
and act like the world and get marked up from head to toe like
the world and get so many piercings they look like they fell in a
tackle box? Why do folks do like that? Because they're afraid
of man. That's why. What are they going to say about
me if I don't do it? Afraid of man. Be afraid of God, not afraid
of man. So the Word falls on your heart,
but it never penetrates any deeper. That's as far as it goes. It
goes in the ear, and the fowls of the air devoured it. He says,
that's the devil that comes and takes away the Word out of your
heart, lest you should hear and be saved. That's sad, but the
majority to whom I preach are wayside hearers. They'll never
hear the Word of God. They'll never hear the Word of
God. The wayside hearer tries not to hear, too. I'm not blind. I sit here and
preach and I can see who's trying not to hear. You can see that
when you're preaching. They're trying not to hear. Try
their best not to hear. Tune it out. Not hear it. That's offensive. That's offensive
to me. I've spent a lot of time praying
for you, seeking a message for you, and I intend for you to
at least pick up this Bible and look into it and see what God
says. It's offensive to you mothers believe in mother and fathers,
believe in brothers and sisters. Because you know what the way
side here saying that might be good enough for y'all, but he
ain't good enough for me. I'm too good for that. And it's
offensive. It's offensive to my God, my
father, my redeemer, my brother, my king, my savior. It's offensive. And worst of all, It's offensive to your own soul.
You're doing nobody else harm but yourself. But yourself. That's it. You know what Abraham did? It said when the fowls came down
upon the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. How can I do that? I don't know God. I don't believe
God. How can I do that? Well, you can give your undivided
attention. You can look up the Scriptures. You can listen with
earnest. And when the message ends, don't fill your mind with
vain talk. Think about what you heard and
go home and ask God to show it to you and seek the Word from
God. You can do that. You can do that. Secondly, here's the stony ground
here, verse 6. Some fell upon a rock and as
soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked
moisture. Verse 13, He says, They on the
rock are they which when they hear, they receive the word with
joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and
in time of temptation they fall away. The Word finds an entrance
with these hearers. They receive the Word with joy.
They receive it. But the Word only goes as far
as the natural judgment. Some people that fit into this
category, all religion is the same to them. You could preach
particular redemption and just right in the middle of the message
change and preach universal redemption and they'd never even hear a
difference. And everything that just has the sound of love and
mercy and feely, feely touchy, they just love it. And it's just
they receive it with joy. It don't matter. And then there
are others who have heard the truth of the gospel all their
life. They've sat on the gospel. Most of our young people, you've
heard the truth all your life. And they know the doctrine. And
they received the doctrine. They understand it. They can
tell you total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,
invincible grace, perseverance of the saints, absolute sovereignty
of God. They can tell you these things.
And maybe they can pick up the Scripture and show you in the
Scripture. Maybe they can argue these things. But with all of
these people, here's the problem. Here's the problem. It says,
In time of temptation they fall away. When affliction or persecution
arises for the word's sake, immediately they're offended. That's what
he said in Matthew. What's the problem? They don't
have moisture, he said. They lack moisture. The Holy
Spirit hasn't given the dew of life in the heart. Hadn't made
the doctrine come down and distill in the heart like dew upon the
tender herb. The problem is they don't have
root. Christ has not been formed in you. That's the problem. There's
no new heart. It hadn't been plowed up. The
ground hadn't been broken up. They haven't been convicted of
their sin. They haven't been shown that all their righteousnesses
are filthy rags. They haven't been shown that
Christ is their one need and they have to have Christ. Without
Christ you cannot come into God's presence. They haven't been shown
these things. It's not been a work of grace done. They don't have
the love of Christ dwelling in their heart. So it's not their
father that you're talking about. It's not their elder brother
that you're talking about. It's not their Redeemer. It's
not their Holy Spirit you're talking about. And so you can
bad mouth them. That's okay. It's just doctrine. Just a system of doctrine. You
can believe that one. I'll believe this one. And we'll say this
is the one area in our life where a lie can be true. And we'll
just move on. But when the love of God's in
your heart and it's your father, Then everything changes. That
changes then. Now you talk, now it's personal.
I wouldn't stand by and let my bad mouth my earthly father.
I'm not going to stand by and let him bad mouth my heavenly
father either. It means something to me now. Because he's put his
love for me in my heart and given me a love for him. So they wither
away. And they do this in various ways.
Some wither away in free will works religion. Any religion
will do. Some wither away back to their
sins. Temptation comes along and there's
a sin. I'd rather be in this and do
this than keep worshipping God. Sometimes there's some that have
unbelievers that they love or they admire or whatever and they'd
rather be with them. And so they fade away and be
with them. Some continue to fill a seat.
But they just grow lukewarm and then cold. It's just a form is
all it is. Going through a routine. You
know, it's strange how I've seen this happen over and over and
over. Folks come and they rejoice and you think God's done a work
of grace in them. You just know He has. And they
just fade away. They just fade away. And you
hope the best. You pray for them and you prayed
that if they came back, treat them just like you did if they
never left. But most of the time you never see them again. Never
see them again. Take heed therefore how you hear.
Beg Christ to accompany the Word. Beg the Holy Spirit to to form
Christ in you and to give you that moisture of life, eternal
life. Beg God the Father to plant you,
that you be a tree of righteousness. Christ said, every tree that
my Heavenly Father has not planted, it will be rooted up. I want
to be planted by Him. I want to be planted by Him.
I want to have my roots running deep by His grace, don't you?
I guarantee you this, this will make a true believer take heed
how we're here. Because if you know yourself,
you know this could be you, this could be you, this could be me.
I pray God keep me. Don't let me, don't let me fall
away. Keep me. Accept Christ to abide
in us and we in Christ, we don't have any root in ourselves and
we can't abide. He's our strength. We gotta have
Him. Here's the thorny ground here right now. Here's the third
kind. It says verse 7, some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang
up with it and choked it. And then in verse 14 he says,
that which fell among thorns are they which when they have
heard they go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures
of life and they bring no fruit to perfection. This one right
here may last a lot longer. He may stay a lot longer under
the sound of the gospel. They may preach. They may preach. They didn't rise up with joy
and then immediately fall away. These stayed around a little
while. And they might preach. And they might serve in some
other capacity in the church. But they're around. And they
appear to bear fruit. But it's dead fruit. It's not
fruit to perfection. What's their problem? These are
doing what Christ said can never be done. Christ said this can
never be done. A man cannot serve God and mammon. It's an impossibility. It cannot
happen. What is mammon? What does that
mean, mammon? It includes, first of all, the
cares of this world. That's what he said there, the
cares of this world. And we're not talking about useless
trivial cares here. We're talking about true cares.
We're talking about having a spouse you got to care for, children
you have to care for, an occupation, paying the bills, serving the
community, real cares. And then it's the deceitfulness
of riches. You know, it starts out at first,
you're just trying to get a nest egg. And then you like that nest
egg. And then you start thinking that
nest egg is your salvation. Or it's stuffitis. You just got
to have stuff. Or you got to keep up with the
Joneses. Materialism. Always got to have something
a little better. Got to have the newest thing.
Got to do this and that. Every one of us sitting here
are a long, long ways from being poor. Did you know that? We're
not hurting. Not anybody in this room. We're
a long ways from being poor. The pleasures of this life. That's
mammon. What is that? That's applause.
Applause, acceptance, honors, power, position, pleasing the
senses. Now this is what the Lord said.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Now
this is so. The treasure of the heart always
wins out. Whatever the treasure of the
heart is, it always wins out. That's what that word means.
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If Christ
is our treasure, these other things will take a back seat.
And if they start getting in the way, we'll say, I've got
to have Christ. These things aren't worth parting
with Christ for. But if these things are really
the treasure, It may take a little while, but eventually they're
going to choke the Word and suffocate that sinner, and he's going to
become unprofitable, totally unprofitable. Christ said, No
man can serve two masters, for either he'll hate the one and
love the other, or else he'll hold to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now, these three hearers
right here, the wayside hearer, the stony ground hearer, and
the thorny ground hearer, These make up the majority of people
who hear the gospel. Now, does that make you who believe? Does it make you uneasy? It makes me uneasy. I'll be honest
with you. It really does. As I was working
on this message, I thought I could fit into any one of those categories.
You know, that could end up being me. It could end up being me
tomorrow or maybe 5 years or 10 years or 25 years. But that
could be me. And I tell you what, the best
way sometimes to preach depravity is to look into a text like this
right here. And you'll begin to see what
you are. And you'll begin to think, yep,
that depravity is me. That's what's in my old man of
flesh. And if God doesn't keep his hand on me and keep me edged
about and keep his word planted in my heart, that'll be me. In
a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. Therefore, take
heed how you hear. Don't take for granted the grace
of God. Don't presume upon God's grace
at all. Heed how you hear. Now, here
are the good ground hearers. Verse 8. He says, And other fell
on good ground, and sprang up, and bear fruit a hundredfold.
And then down in verse 15, He tells us, But that on the good
ground are they which in an honest and good heart... Where does
an honest and good heart come from? It comes from God. It comes
from the Holy Spirit creating us anew in righteousness and
true holiness. Making us honest about our sin,
make us honest about what we thought was our righteousnesses,
making us honest about our self-righteousness, making us honest that we need
Christ and Him alone, and making us come to Him in sincerity and
truth, without guile and hypocrisy, and without worrying about what
folks think. And it says here, and it says, in an honest and
good heart, they hear the Word. Christ has sent it in truth and
we hear it. How do you hear? The hearing
ear is from God. He gives it. And they keep it. Who makes us willing in the day
of His power? He does. That means we receive
it and we keep it. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not of
works. He didn't do it because He foresaw
some merit in us. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And then, they all bear fruit. It's not always the same
fruit, but they all bear fruit. And they all bear fruit by God's
grace. Now, one of the fruits that they bear is this right
here, brethren. This is a good ground hearer. Watch this. They
take heed how they hear. Look at verse 8. It says there
in the second part, And when he had said these things, he
cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Two different reactions came
about from that. Two very different reactions. Here's the good ground
hearer. It says, verse 9, "...and the
disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?"
You see, they took heed how they heard. They didn't understand.
They didn't understand what he was saying. And they wanted to
understand. They wanted to know what their
Redeemer was teaching. And so they went to Him. They
took the trouble of waiting till they could have an opportunity
to be alone and go to Him and ask Him, Lord, teach me what
this means. I want to know what this means.
They took heed to how they hear. Preacher, how do you expect me
to know how to hear? I don't know what you're talking
about. And I don't hear it. And I don't understand it. When
I read these Scriptures, they don't mean anything to me. How
am I supposed to take heed to how I hear? Do you listen? Do you open your Bible? Do you
go home and ask Christ to give you an understanding? Do you
listen to it again and search the Word along with the message
and the notes and all after you've heard the Word? Do you try to
hear? That's what I'm saying. We've got some here. You've got
athletes in your families and some of you are athletes. Do
you listen to what your coach says? Do you give an effort to understand
the playbook? Do you give yourself to practice
on the field and off the field? If not, you can't be expected
to be used by the coach. You can't be expected for the
team to want you to play. Listen to what the Scriptures
say about the Bereans. Listen to this. These were more
noble than those in Thessalonica. These were people in Berea. It
said, in that they received the Word with all readiness. They
just came ready, eager. I want to hear. I want to hear. And it says, readiness of mind.
And they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were
so. They didn't just sit and listen.
They listened. And then they went home and they
took the Scriptures and looked these things up to see if these
things were so. And it says, therefore, therefore
many believed. Many believed, also honorable
women which were Greeks, and of men not a few. You see, they
honored Christ. The light Christ gave them was
this. He gave them a gospel, the gospel preached. He gave
them a preacher to preach it. He gave them a place to meet,
a place to hear, and He gave them the Scriptures. And they
took what light God gave them, and they assembled where He sent
the Word, and they listened with all readiness of mind, and they
took those Scriptures and they searched those Scriptures. You
know what Christ did? Because they honored Him with
using the light He gave them, He gave them a heart to believe.
He gave them faith to believe. That's what I'm saying. I'm just
talking about... We're not talking about deep
doctrine and deep mysteries. We're talking about just weighed
out as far as God says weighed out here. Here's as far as I've
told you to step out. Now you step right this far into
this light. and walk in this little bit of
light I've given you, you walk in this light. But if I'm going
to close my eyes and put my head down, put my hand on my ears,
and I'm not going to walk in the light God's given me, what
do I think is going to happen? Let me apply this to you who've
never heard the gospel. Look, remember this. Let me go
on here. I want to show you this too.
Let me show you. Now, here's another reason, verse
18. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and whosoever
hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he seems to have.
Now, notice what Christ said of His disciples and what Christ
said of the other kind of hearers. Back up here in verse 10. He
said unto you, it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God. You know who these were? These were the ones that came
to Him and said, Lord, teach us what this meant. He said,
unto you it's given to know the mysteries of God. But do you
see anything in this text about those other hearers? No. They didn't come and ask Him
anything. And He said, but to others I speak in parables, that
seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Now, we don't have any light by nature. So for God to give
it, it says He gives to him that hath. For us to have, He has
to give it to us in the first place. And He's going to do that
by His grace, but He's going to do that by this Word. So we
need to heed this Word. And then for you who do know
and do hear and do have already, He's going to grow us more by
this Word. And so all cases here, take heed
how you hear. Now look, These disciples used
the grace He gave, and they came to Him for understanding, and
He said, It's given to you to know. These others, they said,
Yeah, we see. And they walked off. Yeah, we
hear. We heard it. They walked off. And He said, And because you
think you see and you think you hear, I'm going to leave you
blind as a bat and deaf as a doorknob. Now that's just so. They didn't
take heed. They didn't take heed. And eventually
He took away even that which they seemed to have. I don't
want to be there, do you? Look at this next thing. Another
reason Christ teaches us to heed how we hear is because the Lord
gives us light so we can bear witness to others. This is for
believers. Back in verse 16, He says, He
just told them this in secret, in a parable. But He said, Now
no man, when he has lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or
putteth it under a bed, but set it on a candlestick, that they
which enter in may see the light. They came to Him like dark candlesticks. And they came to Him, and He
told them the truth. He taught them the truth. And
He lit them. And He said to them, Now I am not lighting you, so
you can just stay in here in the dark, and this can stay hidden.
And he says there, verse 17, For nothing is secret that shall
not be made manifest, neither anything that is hid that shall
not be known that shall not come abroad. He says, Therefore take
heed how you hear. What he's saying there, brethren,
is this gospel is not always going to be in parables. He said,
Well, I walked this earth. I'm the light of the world. And
at that time, he was fulfilling prophecy. Israel wouldn't hear. They wouldn't walk in the light
God gave them. And so he said through Isaiah, You came here.
I'm not going to let you here. And He turned them over to reprobation.
And Christ is fulfilling that. But Christ is telling His apostles,
now you be sure you understand, that's not how it's always going
to be. I'm going to send you forth when I've arisen and you're
going to go forth with this light preaching this gospel everywhere
in this world to everybody. And so He says, so therefore,
as you're listening to me tell you this, you be sure you understand
and you heed and be careful how you hear. Now, He said there
to him that hath, you'll give more. He told us, freely you
receive, freely give. And He uses that same phrase,
that phrase about meeting it. According to the Gospel, listen
to this. He said, Take heed what you hear, with what measure you
meet it, it shall be measured to you, and unto you that hear
shall more be given. In other words, if I take this
Gospel and I really diligently meet the grace God's given me
with some effort to seek His face, He said, more will be given
to you. If I take this Word, and He says,
go preach it, and I go preach it everywhere He has sent me
to preach it. And I preach it without reservation, and I walk
in the light He's given me. When He opens a door, speak the
truth to somebody. If He opens a door here, speak
the truth to somebody. And don't hold back. You meet
it with the same light that He's given you. Where He's opened
it, and He's opened that door, and He's given you an opportunity
Do it. Go for it. And he says, and it
will be given to you. And he used that same phrase
in another place. He said, give, it shall be given
unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running
over, shall man give unto your bosom? For with the same measure
that you meet it with, shall it be measured to you again.
Now he's talking about giving there, but what I'm saying to
you is, I firmly believe this. I firmly believe this. I believe
that The more I take advantage of
every opportunity I have to teach our young people, to send you
the sermon notes, to try to encourage you to hear, to preach this gospel
to you. I'd preach it seven days a week
if our flesh would let us do it. I really would. What better
would we be doing? Honestly. And I do believe that Christ
honors those that sincerely, from a heart of faith, trust
in Him, look into Him, simply because they're constrained by
His love. I believe Christ will honor it. I believe He will.
And that's what He's saying there. When we apply ourselves to know
more of Christ, it's just not only that He gives us more grace
personally to hear, which He does, and it's not only that
He increases our personal fruit, fruitfulness, which He does,
but the fruit that He also says He'll increase for us, brethren,
are redeemed sinners that He's going to call out by the word
of His gospel. Do you want some of the burden to be taken off
of you? You want some of the burden of all this? You want
other brethren to be brought in so we can all carry this load
together? Preach the gospel. Preach the
gospel. I'm telling you, here's the last
thing. He brings this home right here. The one last reason He
gives why we should take heed how we hear is this right here. Always look at these scriptures.
They could be taken separately and preached individually, but
you can read these together and you see Christ is using everything
that's taken place to show us something. And some of the Gospels
put these in different order, and they're meant to show something
in that context. But here, it says the next thing
that happened is He's preaching. He's sitting there preaching.
And His mother and His brethren come and they can't get to Him
because of all the people that are there. And it says this,
verse 20, and it was told him, thy mother and thy brethren stand
without. They're not there at his feet.
They're out there. I don't know what they've been
doing. Maybe they weren't doing anything wrong. They just weren't
there at the time and they couldn't get there when they got there
because everybody was already there under his feet. So he used
it as an opportunity for a lesson. Or maybe they were out doing
something and they let something come between him and them. Some
of his brethren didn't even believe him. At all. But they were without. They were without. On the outside.
And look at what He said. Verse 21. My mother, my brethren
are these. Right here. Standing under my
feet. Which hear the Word of God and they do it. These are my brethren. These
are my brethren. That's reason enough, isn't it?
Christ Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, to say, I take that to mean this,
those that Christ considers to be His true brethren are those
who hear Him say, take heed how you hear. They hear Him say that
and so they do it. They really do it. They don't
get up from the message and walk out and forget what they heard. wake up tomorrow and start tomorrow
all over like they did today and go on with the same old routine
and not do anything differently as if they've just heard a tale,
a story, a fictional thing to pass the time. He says, they
hear my word and they take heed and they do it. They do it. And
he says, these are my brethren. You know why? Because they really
have the word of God working in their heart. That's right.
He's really speaking to their heart. Now here they are. Few
hear this. One out of four. That's why we
ought to take heed how we hear. Those who heed His Word will
be given more grace. They'll be given more grace.
Those who don't, He'll take away that which they seem to have.
Here's the third reason. We're sent to bear witness of
Him. If I'm going to bear witness of Him, I've got to take heed
to His Word. I'm bearing witness in my word and in my life. I've
got to take heed to what He says. If I'm going to bear witness
of Him. And lastly, Those that do, they're his brethren. They're
true. They're genuine. True family.
Take heed how you hear. Take heed how you hear.